Successful CONALL at Harvard Law School

Over 60 newer academic law librarians and their mentors attended the Convocation of Newer Academic Law Librarians (CONALL) program at the Harvard Law School in Cambridge on Tuesday, July 13, 2004. Starting with the 2000 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, CONALL has been held immediately preceding the ALL-SIS reception to give newer academic law librarians a chance to meet their colleagues. This year, in addition to all newer academic law librarians, the ALL-SIS Mentoring/CONALL Committee decided to broaden those invited to attend CONALL to include those from academic libraries who participate in AALL’s Mentoring Program. This allowed numerous Mentor/Mentee pairs to attend the event together and further their budding relationships as well as adding numerous voices of experience to the discussion. The committee intends for this change to become a regular part of future CONALLs.

This year’s event primarily consisted of a group of short skits introduced by The Wizard of ALL Librarians. These skits were intended to raise issues peculiar to academic law librarianship for further discussion by the group. Marian F. Parker, the chair of the committee, played the Wizard, and with her magic wand, introduced various scenarios and characters (performed by Erika Wayne, Melanie Dunshee, and Paul Moorman) encountered in an academic law library setting. After each skit, the Wizard encouraged discussion and debate about the issues brought up by the skit. Following CONALL, the group as a whole then walked the short distance in the rain to Harvard Law School’s beautiful library to enjoy the festivities at the ALL-SIS reception and awards ceremony. Raizel Liebler, a current library school student at the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign, was a first time annual meeting and CONALL attendee. She was quite pleased she was able to attend CONALL and found it very useful. Ms. Liebler especially appreciated the chance to meet a few of her colleagues before the ALL-SIS reception. As we all know, a large reception can be quite intimidating to newer members; CONALL provides the opportunity to meet some people and break the ice before the big event.

The committee wants to express its appreciation to Harvard Law School for hosting the event, to BNA, Inc. for providing transportation to CONALL, and especially to all the attendees who made this year’s CONALL such a success. The committee is looking forward to another successful CONALL next year in San Antonio! Please make plans to join us!!!

Sally Wise & Amy Osborne, at the ALL-SIS CONELL Table in Boston